Misc.

Legalese

Tasteful Trifles

These tasteful trifles were popular during the Victorian era. Any one of the following items would be a wonderful addition to any Victorian room.

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Spectacle-Case

For more Victorian Tasty Trifles, see complete list at bottom of page.

This is to be made of velvet. Cut the shape first in two pieces of stout cardboard, by Figs, 1 and 2.

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Cut velvet the same shape but larger. Tack the velvet in a frame and embroider the word "Souvenir" and the border on one piece, and the monogram on the other. It must be done with gold twist or filoselle, the letters first raised and then worked over in satin-stitch. The border is raised and worked over in button-hole stitch.

Cover each piece of card with a piece of the velvet, drawing the edges of the velvet close by catching it across and across with a needle and thread on the wrong side of the velvet. Cut some silk by the velvet, turn in the edges, and very neatly sew it on as a lining. Next sew the two pieces of the case together very fine indeed.

Afterwards, if the edge does not look neat, sew it over again, taking a bead each time. Of course the sewing must be done with silk, matching the velvet in colour and shade. The case is secured by a button.

Suspend it to two pieces of ribbon uniting in a knot of bows, under which there is a long hook.

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A quilling of the same kind of ribbon may be observed across the top of the case in Fig. 3.

The hook is to fasten the case to the waist.

Instead of ribbons, fine gilt chain work can be bought by the yard, or, better still, buy afine-linked steel chain, which can be bought for sixpence or a shilling, and cut off what iswanted. Carry the chain across the case at the back, instead of the quilling. Stitch it securely, and take care to fasten both the ends well.

A small steel brooch, if the pin is passed through the upper links of the chain, or if the links can be well sewn to any part of the ornament, will serve to fix the case securely at the waist.

For a brooch a watch-hook may be substituted.

A spectacle case may be made of kid instead of velvet. In that case no cardboard is needed. Holes are pierced for the pattern, and purse silk sewn across in satin-stitch. The kid should be lined with silk, and made up by binding the edges together with ribbon. But the former way of making a case protects the glasses best from injury.